MIKE KELLEY

(Excerpts from 'Mike Kelley dies at 57; L.A. contemporary artist' posted on Los Angeles Times found on http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/02/local/la-me-mike-kelley-20120202 and 'Farewell to Wm. Theophilus Brown' posted on San Francisco Chronicle found on http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/09/DDE51N59PQ.DTL)

Mike Kelley is shown in his studio with a work in progress in 1989; Courtesy Los Angeles Times

Mike Kelley, an influential Los Angeles artist whose physically messy and psychologically complex projects laid the groundwork for present-day installation art, has died. He was 57.

He was found dead Tuesday evening at his home in South Pasadena in what several friends described as a suicide following a serious depression. "We can't confirm a suicide pending an autopsy or coroner's report," said one of the estate's trustees, art historian John Welchman. More here.

WILLIAM THEOPHILUS BROWN

William Theophilus Brown; Courtesy Thomas Reynolds Gallery

William Theophilus Brown, an elegant and irreverent American painter and member of the venerated Bay Area Figurative Movement who met and befriended some of history’s great artists, from Pablo Picasso to Igor Stravinsky, died Wednesday [February 8, 2012] at his home in San Francisco. He was 92.

Mr. Brown, who lived in the opulent San Francisco Towers, which he christened the “Versailles of retirement communities,” was painting until the end, said his friend and gallerist Thomas Reynolds. He had a studio a few blocks from his home and continued to participate in weekly drawing sessions with a model. More here.